Bill Spohn wrote:Well I won't quote points (nor tell you what I think of points for fear of insulting you) but I will note the best wines I've tasted this year, in no particular order.

Great list there, Bill. Thanks for posting.

And never worry about insulting me, I'm a used car salesman - people insult my intelligence pretty much every day of the year - they think they're allowed to because they're "the customer" or one of my superiors. And I'm so used to being rejected, I often revert to a most apt phrase to stifle the pain of dealing with buffoons - "to avoid failure let's both quit now".

David Lole wrote:And never worry about insulting me, I'm a used car salesman

Naw, nothing really about you, I just either start laughing or roll my eyes when people reduce the experience of tasting and enjoying a wine over a period of time as it opens up in the glass to a two digit number.

Are you SURE that those 94 pointers were obviously superior to those nasty 93 pointers.....

Dale Williams wrote:Not an exhaustive list, but memorable wines included the following:

1974 Robert Mondavi Reserve

Dale, this classic wine showed poorly when I last tasted it in Feb. Very tired - in fact more tired than the regular Mondavi 1990 I opened awhile back (very nice, BTW). Do you think this was just bottle variation? I take it that your bottle showed well or it wouldn't have made your list.

I also had a bottle last year that was tired. My blind note from this June:Wine #3 Ripe cassis and black plum fruit, mint and eucalyptus notes. A little smoke and tobacco. Tannins seem to have integrated. Very nice Guesses were centered on CalCab. #3 1974 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve A- (snip) on the other hand I liked this '74 Mondavi much better than a bottle a year or two ago.

I love it when I see someone saying authoritatively that a certain wine is dead based on a single tasting, especially if it is an older wine. Especially if said wine is really very good and everyone else decides to unload it based on the bad note....

With 30 plus year old bottles, there are so many variables - the difference of oxygen egress from corks, travel/shipping conditions (even 1 owner bottles had to travel originally!), subsequent storage, etc. So I've had 1961 Pape Clement that ranged from close to dead to really nice. It's always good to have data points, but one is just that- a point.

I don't keep lists or notes, but the 1976 Lafite and the 1925 Sauternes from MoCool were most memorable. More importantly, I got to meet some of the best people on this board. That was even better than the wine. I hope the new year brings even more friends and old friends back. Great poll David. Happy New Year! I hope you can make it to NiagaraCool in June!

.....we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. A. Lincoln

wine of the year for me was the 2005 Le Gay that I tried recently that was haunting....almost strange to say that about an 05 bordeaux until you try it.

My wine of the year with friends was 6 bottles of a cheap $17 La Spinetta Moscato d'asti that we shared with 8 people in the middle of summer. All 6 bottles were finished as part of a 2 hour conversation that lasted late into the night around some comical nonsensical things that happen int he office, in the malls, etc,..... I miss those times with good friends....

Although not strictly speaking the 'very best' wine I had in 2008, by far the most memorable wine I've ever had, and likely to remain so for a long while: Chateau Coutet, Haut-Barsac 1928. Although the wine itself gets a 'mere' rating of Extraordinary (93 - 95) from me, the experience of drinking it I rate Perfection (99 - 100). All other wines I've tasted are merely ordinary beside it. And a wine I am confident will see its 100th year with pleasures to spare. It gets my top billing for the year.

The other wines that would make my list for the year (listed in ascending order by tasting date within each rating category):

Outstanding (95 - 97):Ramos Pinto, Quinta de Ervamoira Port, Oporto 2004--It should be noted that this wine was Incredible (97 - 99) on my first tasting, from a bottle that had more breathing time (24 hours), and that this second bottle (which breathed for only 12 hours) certainly had similar potential.

So, the round up: 3 Ports, 3 California Cabernets, 2 Sauternes, 1 red Bordeaux, 1 Super-Tuscan, and one [Sparkling] Australian Shiraz. What should you make of that? Simply the wines that I was fortunate to have come my way this past year. Worth noting that 3 of the 11 came from this past Friday (the 26th). And if I had made this list in November (which surely nobody would be foolish enough to presume to do . . . . oh, wait), 4 out of the 11 would not be there. The year ain't over 'till it's over!

"The sun, with all those planets revolving about it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else to do"Galileo Galilei

(avatar: me next to the WIYN 3.5 meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory)

Dale Williams wrote:Not an exhaustive list, but memorable wines included the following:

1974 Robert Mondavi Reserve

Dale, this classic wine showed poorly when I last tasted it in Feb. Very tired - in fact more tired than the regular Mondavi 1990 I opened awhile back (very nice, BTW). Do you think this was just bottle variation? I take it that your bottle showed well or it wouldn't have made your list.

Doesn't quite count as 2008 [by just an hour or two], but I had the 1978 RM Reserve, from magnum, late in the evening on Dec 31, 2007, and it was only just beginning to show any secondary notes.

Don't know about 750s, but in magnum, that 1978 is gonna last another 30 or 40 years - no prob.